Lance Armstrong seized the Yellow Jersey on the tenth stage with its hilltop finish at Hautacam (where the cold, wet weather suited Armstrong and made riding difficult for Ullrich) and never relinquished it. His 53.986 km/hr time trial in stage 19 set a new Tour record.

This was Lance Armstrong's second Tour victory and Jan Ullrich's third second place.

In 2012 Lance Armstrong was stripped of all of his Tour wins after his doping had been revealed.

This excerpt is from "The Story of the Tour de France", Volume 2. If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print or electronic. The Amazon link here will make either purchase easy.

The lead-in to the expected rematch between the 3 active tour winners began to take on the appearance of a soap opera. While Armstrong studiously trained and reconnoitered the important roads of the 2000 Tour, Ullrich and Pantani both had a problematic winter and spring. In January Pantani announced that both the Giro and the Tour would be the centerpieces of his 2000 season. He spent part of the winter training in the Canary Islands. Ullrich escaped the cold of his native Germany by training in Mallorca. As the early season races drew nigh Pantani postponed his racing start, feeling that things were not "tranquil". He was dealing with the stress of returning to racing after more than just a short absence from racing. In fact, he hadn't been riding at all. After his 1999 Giro expulsion, Pantani had basically hung up his bike. Moreover, Pantani was harassed by a judicial investigation into his 1999 Giro disqualification. In Italy there is a crime called "sporting fraud" and Pantani was potentially culpable. Later an inquiry would also be opened into the circumstances of his 1995 Turin crash and the extremely high hematocrit hospital technicians found him to have.

In March Armstrong pulled out of ParisNice, but this was due to a case of bronchitis. Ullrich rode the Tour of Murcia and finished ninety-third, almost an hour behind the winner, David Cañada. The message from the T-Mobile team regarding Ullrich was alles ist in ordnung [everything is in order]. Late in February Pantani entered and retired from the Tour of Valencia. Ominously, his doctor started talking openly about stress and made it clear that Pantani's mental condition wasn't ideal.

When March came Ullrich entered the TirrenoAdriatico stage race. He was so fat that his team managers tried to keep photographers away from him. The team said he had to lose about 3 kilos. Other racers said Ullrich had to shed at least 10 kilograms to be competitive. All the talk about Ullrich now centered on his weight and lack of conditioning. By late March Pantani was still postponing the restart of his racing season. Meanwhile Armstrong was testing his legs in spring races and getting top placings.

On May 13, after a long series of yes-and-no signals about his riding the Giro, Pantani announced he would indeed ride the Italian national tour. Ullrich attempted to ride the Midi Libre but abandoned after a poor time trial and a shelling in the mountains. Pantani ended up finishing the Giro an hour down and in twenty-eighth place, helping his friend and teammate Stefano Garzelli win. Pantani showed improving form in the Giro's latter stages with a second place in the mountainous stage 19.

In the drug war, a test for synthetic EPO had been developed, but because there were too many questions about its reliability, it was decided not to implement it for the Tour.

At the end of June it looked like Ullrich might have pulled a rabbit out of his hat when he took a fifth place in the Tour of Switzerland, finishing only 2 minutes behind the winner, Oscar Camenzind, and beating Virenque by 15 seconds. So at the start of the Tour, Armstrong looked to be rock-solid and his 2 main challengers were really unknown quantities. It was hard to know exactly what kind of fitness they would bring to the race. There were 2 other potential challengers, Escartin and Zülle, who had both prepared carefully.

The other important character in this, the Millennium Tour, was the route. The Prologue was lengthened to 16.5 kilometers, perhaps putting it out of reach of the short-distance men who specialized in doing well in the usual pure-power start-up to the race. For the first time since 1995, the Tour included a team time trial. Armstrong said he relished the addition, as well he should, given the strength of his team. The team time trial also favored ONCE with Olano and Jalabert, and Ullrich's Telekom squad. There was only 1 extended individual time trial, 58.5 kilometers coming on the third to last stage. To honor the history of the Tour, stage 14 would go over the historic route last used in 1949 and won by Fausto Coppi that took in the Allos, Vars and Izoard. After the Pyrenean stages, there was only a short respite before 3 days of hard climbing in the Alps, a schedule that would favor the climbers. If Pantani had recovered both his physical form and his mental well being, he could be thought to be the favorite. That being unlikely, the race was really Armstrong's to lose.

The Tour started at the Futuroscope amusement park. Scotsman David Millar squeaked past Armstrong by 2 seconds to take the win and the first Yellow Jersey. Signaling fair-enough form, Ullrich was fourth, 14 seconds slower than Millar. Millar kept the lead until the stage 4 team time trial. Spanish racing had certainly changed a lot from the early days when Spaniards were only interested in and good at climbing. By the 1990s Spaniards were among the most accomplished time trialists in the world. Jalabert and Olano's well-drilled ONCE squad won the stage, even after a 20-second penalty for using a team car to tow a dropped rider back up to the squad. Jalabert was now in Yellow, a fact that did not displease the other contenders since it was assumed that Jalabert would not be able to hold the lead in the mountains, and yet his powerful team would be responsible in the short term for controlling the race.

During the team time trial Armstrong showed that he had more to learn about being a team leader. As Postal crossed a giant bridge over the Loire river, Armstrong took a hard pull. With the steep climb that crossing the big bridge entailed and the day's strong crosswinds, Armstrong's efforts blew the team apart. They struggled to get back together but it showed that even a team that has done the most careful practice and preparation can make serious mistakes in the heat of competition. In team time trials it is the usual practice to have the strongest riders take longer rather than harder pulls to give the others more time to rest and keep the overall average speed higher. Even with that error, the US Postal team came in second, only 26 seconds behind ONCE.

Team Once rides the team time trial

For Zülle, it was almost like 1999 again. His Banesto team lost 4 minutes, a time gap that would be almost impossible for him to take back from Armstrong. Again, his Tour was almost over before it started. Escartin was in even worse shape: his Kelme team came in fourteenth, almost 5 minutes slower than ONCE. In truth, barring a catastrophe in the mountains, the Tour for him was largely over.

The General Classification after the stage 4 team time trial:

Laurent Jalabert

David Cañada @ 12 seconds

Lance Armstrong @ 24 seconds

Abraham Olano @ 35 seconds

Viacheslav Ekimov @ 43 seconds

Jalabert was able to keep the lead for only 2 days. Early in stage 6, while Jalabert was taking a 'natural break', a group of 12 riders rolled off the front and quickly formed a smooth working group. ONCE, Pantani's Mercatone-Uno team and US Postal chased but the 12 men would not be denied and were able to preserve a lead of over 7 minutes by the end of the stage. ONCE showed that they had higher ambitions than Jalabert's surely temporary time in Yellow by shutting down their own chase efforts after only a few kilometers. The man with the good fortune to have snagged the Yellow Jersey after the day's successful break was one of the oldest men in the peloton, 36-year old Alberto Elli of Telekom. Now, how much energy would Telekom expend defending Elli's lead? Telekom's Manager predicted that Elli would keep the Yellow Jersey until the climbing started in stage 10.

The next day answered some questions. Telekom did work, albeit not too hard, to defend Elli's lead when French rider Christophe Agnolutto went on a successful solo break (the first one for a French rider in the Tour since 1997). Near the end of the stage Elli got into a break and US Postal jumped to the front of the pack and shut it right down. No one wanted things to get out of hand. The next day when Dutch rider Erik Dekker escaped it was US Postal and Mercatone Uno who did the work of keeping the gap manageable.

So, at the end of stage 9 with hard Pyrenean climbing coming the next day, here was the General Classification. Most of the higher ranking riders were beneficiaries of the stage 6 break:

Alberto Elli

Fabrice Gougot @ 12 seconds

Marc Wauters @ 1 minute 15 seconds

Pascal Chanteur @ 2 minutes 56 seconds

Giuseppe Guerini @ 5 minutes 25 seconds

Stage 10, the only major Pyrenean stage, with its hilltop finish at Lourdes/Hautacam would certainly sort things out. 205 kilometers long, the real climbing didn't start until kilometer 111 with the Col de Marie-Blanque followed by the Aubisque and then its little brother the Soulor before the final ascent. The day started in Armstrong's favor with cold, rainy weather, which Armstrong preferred and Ullrich loathed. It had now rained 9 out of the first 10 stages. Escartin's Kelme team sent several riders up ahead and they carved out a good-sized lead. Postal started to assert themselves on the Aubisque and rode hard enough to drop most of the peloton including Jalabert. Kelme rider Javier Otxoa went over the Aubisque first. Following him were 8 riders in an Escartin/Virenque group. About 3 minutes further back were the main contenders, Armstrong, Zülle, Ullrich and Pantani among them. Telekom rider Giuseppe Guerini did a lot of the work in the Armstrong/Ullrich group on the upper slopes of the Aubisque.

Very soon into the final climb Pantani attacked. Armstrong and Zülle were the only ones who could go with him. Then, in a move that astonished all who were watching, Armstrong jumped and dropped first Zülle and then Pantani. He then went after the others up the road and caught all but Otxoa, who was too far ahead. Otxoa won the stage after being away for about 160 kilometers. Armstrong came charging in 42 seconds later. Then the beaten and damaged former contenders crossed the line, Virenque and Escartin at 2 minutes, Zülle at 3 minutes, 47 seconds. Ullrich's poor preparation was clear, he finished thirteenth, 4 minutes behind Otxoa. Pantani was twenty-first, almost 6 minutes back. In a single day on a single climb Armstrong had put his rivals in a very dire position. Like Merckx 30 years back, once Armstrong gained time, it was almost impossible to take it back. Christophe Moreau, grasping for any silver lining, thought Armstrong might be vulnerable because his team wasn't as strong as in 1999.

The new General Classification:

Lance Armstrong

Jan Ullrich @ 4 minutes 14 seconds

Christophe Moreau @ 5 minutes 10 seconds

Marc Wauters @ 5 minutes 18 seconds

Peter Luttenberger @ 5 minutes 21 seconds

Joseba Beloki @ 5 minutes 23 seconds

The next day was a transition day of lesser climbs with a rest day to follow. Then they would have to contend with Mount Ventoux. Stage 12, which finished at the top of the dreaded "Giant of Provence" was held on the thirty-third anniversary of Tom Simpson's death in 1967. While the stage did have 3 second-category climbs, it was on the ascent to the top of Mount Ventoux that the action occurred. At the base of the climb Armstrong's teammates Tyler Hamilton and Kevin Livingston set such a hot pace that Zülle, Escartin and Moreau were dropped. So much for Moreau's being able to take advantage of the weaker 2000 Postal team. Eventually only 7 riders were left: Armstrong, Roberto Heras, Santiago Botero, Joseba Beloki, Richard Virenque, Jan Ullrich, and Marco Pantani. Pantani was yo-yoing on and off the back as Ullrich drove the group hard up the hill. Then, after the riders climbed past the tree line, with about 5 kilometers to go, Pantani surprised everyone and went to the front and delivered a series of hammer blows, the last of which were more than the others could withstand. The man who styled himself "the Pirate" was gone. But it wasn't over. Armstrong leaped out of the chasing group and took off after Pantani and caught him.

Armstrong wrote that as they fought the hard winds together near the top he tried to encourage Pantani and yelled, "Vince", for victory. Pantani misunderstood and thought Armstrong said "Vitesse" [go faster] and was trying to antagonize him. At the top, Armstrong wrote, he eased to let Pantani have the win (and that's exactly how it looked), the usual practice when the Yellow Jersey has worked with another rider and has gained a solid time increase with the other's help.

The consequences of that act almost cost Armstrong the Tour. In a series of press conferences Armstrong indicated that he had indeed let Pantani win the stage. Pantani was enraged and humiliated. He lashed back saying that he was the better rider and had fairly won the sprint. The dispute hit its nadir when Armstrong called Pantani "Elefantino", a nickname that Pantani detested because it made fun of his prominent ears.

Despite the sordid little episode Armstrong had delivered another punch to the peloton's solar plexus. The new General Classification:

Lance Armstrong

Jan Ullrich @ 4 minutes 55 seconds

Joseba Beloki @ 5 minutes 52 seconds

Christophe Moreau @ 6 minutes 53 seconds

Manuel Beltran @ 7 minutes 25 seconds

Richard Virenque @ 8 minutes 28 seconds

After a transition stage came stage 14, the stage which was to be a reminder of Tours past with its ascent of the Allos, Vars and Izoard, the first of 3 days in the Alps. One would have expected fireworks from those who knew they couldn't wait for the time trial to gain time. Again the Kelme team unleashed a storm of aggression and were rewarded with a solo stage win by Santiago Botero. The upper echelons of the General Classification remained unchanged.

When reviewing the final 2 Alpine stages, one can't help but think of that famous advice from Machiavelli's The Prince: "And let it be here noted that men are either to be kindly treated or utterly crushed, since they can revenge lighter injuries, but not graver." This has often been paraphrased as "Never do an enemy a small harm." Pantani had been stewing over Armstrong's post-Ventoux comments. Armstrong's needless tail-twisting had deeply angered the Italian, who had been contemplating revenge.

Stage 15, from Briançon over the Galibier and the Madeleine with a hilltop finish at Courchevel was a climber's dream. Since the early kilometers on the Galibier there had been another Kelme-inspired break. The chasing peloton stayed together until the ride up to Courchevel. Pantani attacked early in the final ascent and only Armstrong could go with him. Then Pantani went again and Armstrong couldn't resist. Pantani went off up the road seeking the early breakaways. He caught them all and soloed in for a victory that could not be considered any sort of gift. Pantani made it clear that for him the win was a sort of revenge against Armstrong. Armstrong, who came in 50 seconds after Pantani ended up benefiting from the Pirate's move as he distanced himself still further from Ullrich and Beloki.

Now came the second of the 2 rest days before the final day in the Alps. Stage 16, from Courchevel to Morzine, had 4 big mountains, the Saisies, Aravis, Colombière and the Joux-Plane. Armstrong wrote that he expected this day to be the scene of certain war between Pantani and himself. War he may have expected, but he probably didn't count on the mutually assured self-destruction that ensued. On the Saisies, with over 120 kilometers of hard Alpine racing to go, Pantani exploded off the front. In a flash he was gone and the Postal team had no choice but to chase. Eventually Pantani made common cause with Escartin and a teammate of Virenque's, Pascal Hervé. The trio still had a lead when they went over the Colombière but by they time they had finished the descent the Postal-led peloton had caught them. It looked like Pantani's second day of trying to punish Armstrong had failed. On the Joux-Plane Pantani faded and lost contact with the Armstrong group. But the hours of relentless chasing had taken their toll on the others. The front of the peloton had come down to just 4 riders, Ullrich, Armstrong, Virenque and Roberto Heras. Armstrong had felt so good during the chase that he rolled right through the feed zone and didn't pick up any food; a failing he later called, "a feeble mistake, an unthinkable one for a professional."

On the climb, with 20 kilometers to go, Armstrong couldn't keep up with the others. 10 kilometers from the summit he bonked. For the second year in a row (see stage 15, 1999) Armstrong had not eaten enough and found himself in trouble. Seeing the opportunity, Ullrich started to pound up the hill for all he was worth. Armstrong, through an enormous effort of will, got himself up the final kilometers of the Joux-Plane and then hurtled down the other side of the mountain into Morzine. Because Ullrich had not come to the Tour with the body that had won the Tour in 1997, he couldn't capitalize on Armstrong's embarrassing failure to eat. Virenque won the stage but Armstrong lost only a minute and a half to Ullrich. Like Poulidor, Ullrich's career is strewn with these moments that could have been used to create a Tour victory. Armstrong was blessed in the quality of his competition. Pantani spent the evening suffering from terrible gastric problems and retired from the Tour the next day. Armstrong was deeply resentful of Pantani's kamikaze attack, but perhaps if the Italian had not been suffering from stomach problems he might have succeeded in winning the stage. In any case, he fulfilled, beyond his wildest dreams, his desire to "blow the stage up". Armstrong said that those agonizing minutes on the Joux-Plane were the worst in his cycling career.

Armstrong had a solid lead and had only the final time trial to worry about. Starting in Fribourg en Brisgau, Germany, and finishing in Mulhouse, France, Ullrich had the home-court advantage in the 2000 Tour's only long individual time trial. Armstrong, with a solid 5 minute, 37 second lead, didn't have to worry about losing the Tour to Ullrich unless misfortune struck. This is always a possibility in a time trial where the rider is going all-out. Over the first 10 kilometers, Ullrich was able to stay even with Armstrong, who started last, 3 minutes after the German. Then, after getting approval from Bruyneel, Armstrong upped the tempo and slowly forged a lead as he passed the crowds lining the road estimated at 1 million strong. At the end, Armstrong had gained his only stage win of the 2000 Tour, beating Ullrich by 25 seconds. It was the second fastest time trial in Tour history at 53.98 kilometers an hour, just off the 1989 mark of 54.545 set by Lemond. Winning the stage was terribly important to Armstrong who didn't want to take the ultimate victory by winning, as the Italians say, a la Balmamion.

The strength of the Postal team was made very clear when they were the only team to finish the Tour complete. None of the Postal riders had to abandon.

There was another race going on, the race for the Points Leader's Green Jersey. Telekom's Erik Zabel took his fifth Maillot Vert.